(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a drain tube device of a muffler for a fuel cell vehicle, and more particularly, to a drain tube device for easily discharging blower air and condensate water through a drain formed in the muffler at the time of starting the vehicle.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In general, a fuel cell, which is a kind of generator that generates electrical energy by an electrochemical reaction of fuel (hydrogen) and oxidizing agent (oxygen), has been studied and developed as a power source due to an increase in demand for alternative power sources, and the fuel cell is widely used in fields such as a mobile power supply of a portable electronic device, a transport power supply of a vehicle, a distribution power supply of a building, etc.
The fuel cell includes a stack generating electrical energy, a fuel supplying system supplying the fuel (hydrogen) to the stack, an air supplying system supplying air to the stack, and related components.
Meanwhile, the fuel cell is installed with an exhaust system, and the exhaust system is configured to exhaust moisture generated at the time of a generation reaction of the stack, non-reacted hydrogen and air. The exhaust system may generate high frequency noise such as high speed air flow sound, and particularly, since a fuel cell vehicle using a fuel cell system as a power source is very sensitive to a noise problem, an exhaust muffler for reducing noise is mounted in the fuel cell system.
The exhaust muffler embeds a sound absorbing material such as a glass wool, or the like for reducing noise, and also embeds a hydrogen dilution mechanism diluting exhausted hydrogen to a predetermined concentration or less.
Meanwhile, since an exhaust muffler according to the related art includes the sound absorbing material having a very high hydrous performance, the exhaust muffler easily absorbs moisture. As a result, the exhaust muffler may not consistently maintain predetermined sound absorbing capability, and consequently, acoustic performance thereof may decrease. In particular, the exhaust of the fuel cell contains a large amount of generated moisture. The moisture is condensed in the muffler, or water condensed in an upper exhaust system is introduced into the muffler, which often causes water to be collected in a bottom of the muffler. In this case, since the sound absorbing material filled in the bottom of the muffler absorbs and contains the water, the sound absorbing material may not maintain sound absorbing capability, thereby decreasing acoustic performance of the muffler. In addition, in the case of the fuel cell vehicle in which performance at a low temperature is critical, the condensed or collected moisture may be frozen in an environmental condition below a temperature of 0° C., thereby causing problems such as a decrease in exhaust performance.